Last month I had to call Crystal Palace FC about a membership issue. The box office number began 0871, signalling this was a premium rate line and would cost a fair whack.
You might be thinking these weren’t allowed any more, but that’s only for financial services or customer service lines — not for new purchases.
I looked around for alternative digits. Ideally I wanted a freephone option, but anything starting with 01, 02 or 03 would mean that it’d count as “local rate” and come out of my inclusive mobile allowance. Sadly, I had no luck.
Time was of the essence (tickets for a big match at Wembley were on sale the next day) so I had to take the hit. My bill came in recently and the 16-minute call cost me £12.44. Considering I pay just £8 a month for everything else, this was a substantial hike.
I was pleased to see that I won’t face these charges in the future. Earlier this month the club finally introduced a local rate number for the box office. It’s about time.
It now means all Premier League clubs have numbers that work this way (although Liverpool FC doesn’t let you call at all).
But these 087 numbers and similar 084 numbers aren’t just restricted to box offices. They could effectively be any kind of sales line.
Though some landlines and mobile networks will include calls to these numbers, most won’t. If faced with paying, it’s always worth looking for a free alternative.
The website Say No To 0870, where freephone or local rate numbers are shared, can be hit and miss but it’s always the first place I go.
Another trick is to find a number you can use when calling from abroad, starting +44. In the pre-Zoom days this was a great workaround for conference calls!
Or you can see if there’s an alternative switchboard or department that will redirect your call — though often they will just give you the premium number.
If none of these work, you can try a live chat, or see if you can email instead (although increasingly you’ll find brands only offer these online options and not phone numbers).
If you don’t know the number at all, be careful of just Googling for a number. Even though they can’t be used for customer service calls, they once were and it’s still possible for these older numbers to appear on a search result.
The same goes for using an old letter, though bank cards should have been replaced by now and should have a local rate number. I’d go direct to the brand’s website to see what they list.
And don’t forget there are the even more expensive numbers still — those beginning 09 and 118. They’ll generally be for things like competitions, TV voting, directory enquiries or chatlines.
Though there’s a cap of £6 per call, you’ll likely be faced with an access charge on top of that, which could be up to 67p per minute (depending on your network).
I’d really question whether you need to make the call when these are the numbers.
Meta isn’t doing any better when it comes to scams
Back in February I revealed in this column that financial influencers on platforms such as Instagram were being targeted by scammers. Cloned pages were created, near identical to the originals, and used to message genuine followers.
Impersonators then offered fake investing opportunities in a bid to steal large and small sums of cash.
Sadly, three months on little has changed, with new clones appearing every day (I even had one attempt to copy me).
In response, a group has set up the #MetaDoBetter campaign to raise awareness and pressure Instragram owner Meta to provide a blue tick to verify genuine content creators.
It’s a common sense solution that would at least help you spot the difference between the real and the fake accounts, so do check out the hashtag on Instagram to learn more and share your support.
Andy Webb is an award-winning blogger and podcaster from Be Clever With Your Cash. Follow Andy on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram via @andyclevercash.
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